RECORD REVIEW: HAWKWIND BEST OF THE UNITED ARTISTS YEARS 1971-1974

ROADHAWKS “2”

Old music is the best. You know, like 1960s music – Edgard Varese, for example. Or even older, like Beethoven. Or Ockeghem, for that matter. Well, hey, let’s not get lost in the Time Tunnel…

Here in the early 21st Century, there remain a lot of rock bands who’ve been plying their trade for 40 or 50 years. It’s nice they’re still kicking, but I’m not buying any of that “Oh, they’re just as good as they ever were” nonsense that overzealous fans try to sell. Sorry, but THEY’RE NOT JUST AS GOOD. They’re old – for the most part, semi-decrepit – their voices (often) are shot, through years of self-abuse and overuse. They’ve run out of compositional ideas. They bank on the nostalgia factor, and that’s fine if you accept it for what it is. Just don’t tell me that the new 2017 album by “_________” (fill in the name of any 60s or 70s artist still releasing albums) is equal to something they produced in the 60s or 70s. IT AIN’T TRUE. Oh, and one more point on this point: It didn’t take until 2017 for them to lose it. Most of them lost it by the 1980s, if not by 1974 or ’75.

None of that should be taken as a slam against the subject of this essay, Hawkwind. This band still exists (though with only one original member), still tours, still produces new albums, and (IMO) still manages to keep things a bit interesting beyond the generic nostalgia factor. I saw them in what may have been their final North American concert performance, in Allentown, PA, in 2007. They were good, it was nice, it was fun. But I’d trade 5 million Allentown 2007 shows for one single Hawkwind gig from 1970 or ’71. I would trade every show they’ve played since 1976 for one single gig from 1970-1975.

Perhaps this rambling preamble gives you an idea why I felt it was imperative to nab a copy of the Record Store Day release of Hawkwind: Best of the United Artists Years 1971-1974, issued on beautiful green vinyl April 22. You understand, given the subtle indications above, that I maintain an approximate cut-off date of 1975 for all things Rock, so the operative time frame was right up my alley. Also, I would have considered buying this release on CD, but I have all the old HW albums on CD already, so it would have been only a novelty purchase, just because I like HW so much. But the vinyl makes it more special (and I don’t really care about the colored stuff – black is just fine with me). The old HW albums are hard to find on vinyl, and the prices are brutal. So the RSD release really caught my eye, and by extension, my ear.

So, what about this record anyway? Well, that’s what I’m really here to talk about. For those few who actually have some interest, and for my own intellectual catharsis, I wanted to assay a review of HW BOTUAY 1971-1974.

Before listening to it, or even buying it, I immediately viewed it as a sort of ROADHAWKS “2.” Now, Roadhawks - for those uninitiated among you - was the first HW compilation album, issued in 1976 on United Artists at the time when the band was moving over to the Charisma label, where they would stay until the ‘80s. Roadhawks was a de facto “Best of” album, featuring eight of HW’s most notable songs, including their biggest hit single, Silver Machine.

Each vinyl side contained four songs, running seamlessly into each other via crossfades and synthesizer patches. At the time of its release, the band had issued 5 studio albums and 1 live album. Roadhawks contained 2 songs from their first album, 1 each from their third, fourth, and fifth albums, 2 non-album singles, and 1 song from their second album, but in a live version recorded at the same time as the live album, though not included on that live album. (Got all that? Quiz later.) A nice, tidy summary of the band’s career up to that point. Only possible quibble about the song selection is the absence of “Master of the Universe” but really, there was just no room, and what’s there works so well. (Don’t fail to experience one of the most sublime moments in Rock music, coming near the end of Side 2: the entry of the solo violin at the onset of “The Golden Void.” Wonderful.)

The new Best of 1971-74 album repeats the Roadhawks format of 4 songs per side, although, with the exception of the first 2 tracks on Side 2, they stand separately rather than being joined with crossfades. The scope here is narrower, as the first and fifth HW albums are not represented at all. Timewise, they fall outside of the album’s parameters, being 1970 and 1975 releases, respectively. Plus, the first album originally came out on Liberty Records, rather than UA, and the fifth album, while released on UA in Britain, appeared on ATCO in the US.

No matter, the remaining early HW albums contain enough good stuff to go around.

To make this easier, let’s take the songs in order as they appear on the RSD record.

Side 1

1. Silver Machine. I’ve already mentioned this was HW’s biggest hit single (reached #3 in the UK). It is denoted here as “Live at the Roundhouse” but it is from 1972, rather than 1971, as some places on the internet have it. You will note it doesn’t really sound live – they cleaned it up in the studio. The original live vocal, by lyricist Bob Calvert, was wiped totally. I’ve heard it on bootlegs of the gig – it was quite horrendous, and they rightly recognized they needed a new take on it. Bassist Lemmy (yes, he of Motorhead fame) emerges as the dark horse and provides the throat needed to propel the band to Top of the Pops territory.

2. Master of the Universe. From HW’s second studio album, In Search of Space. This is HW in a Black Sabbathish mood (no wonder I like it). The lyrics alone tell you it’s genius:

“I am the centre of this universe, the wind of time is blowing through me;

And it's all moving relative to me, It's all a figment of my mind. . .

I am the creator of this universe, and all that it was meant to be.”

Throw this haunting poetry on top of a riff that sounds like Sabbath’s “Paranoid” slowed down several notches, add some wah-wah’d alto sax in the middle, and you’ve got a certified “Master”piece. Probably my favorite HW song of all. Look, I don’t care if you never listen to another Hawkwind tune in your life, but you’ve got to at least once sit down in front of a pair of speakers and let yourself go into a trance as this song pounds its cosmic way into your mind. OK?

3. Lord of Light. One of several standout tracks from HW’s third album, Doremi Fasol Latido, and a single release in 1973. This version, however, is from Space Ritual, the iconic live album recorded in December 1972. (For some odd reason, there is no notation on the album that this is a live recording, as in the cases of Silver Machine and Space is Deep.) Here, the Hawks do their take on the perennial favorite A-G-F-E chord progression (Hit the Road Jack, In the Year 2525, Runaway, Temptation Eyes, etc etc etc). They had used the same progression, by the way, in Seven By Seven, the flip side of Silver Machine, to great effect.

4. Urban Guerilla. This was another 1973 single release, issued, unfortuitously, at the same time a rash of IRA bombings struck London. The lyrics, by resident poet and semi-looney Bob Calvert, speak of explosions, making bombs in the cellar, potential killers, and other anarchical notions. No wonder, perhaps, that the single was pulled from the market after about 3 weeks. For what it’s worth, I’d call this Calvert’s best work with the band. I don’t really like the proto-punk direction he took them in the post-UA years.

Side 2

1. Space is Deep. Also from the third album, and like Lord of Light, it appears here in its live incarnation from Space Ritual (though the album jacket does note this one as “live”). Much as its studio counterpart, it starts off with soft-strum guitar chords which burst out after about 3 minutes into a 2-chord thrash before returning a few minutes later to fingerpicky noodling. “Space is dark, it is so endless; when you’re lost it’s so relentless.” Yeah, that’s it - it’s deep AND dark, like the band itself.

2. Web Weaver. One of the lower profile tunes on HW’s fourth LP, Hall of the Mountain Grill, this is the most surprising inclusion on the RSD album. Featuring, quite atypically for HW, a prominent piano part, the song begins with some folky-sounding chords before sliding into a descending chromatic progression very similar to You Know You’re Only Dreaming from the second album.

3. Lost Johnny. Another rather unexpected choice from the fourth album, but a good change of pace in this context. Lemmy gets another star turn here, this time on his own composition about a derelict kid who’s into drugs & illegal sex and probably at the same time. It’s heavy, fuzzy, echo-y, spooky. . . very nice.

4. Brainbox Pollution. This was the B-side of the ill-fated Urban Guerilla 45 and never appeared on a vinyl album, so it’s a good inclusion here. It’s uptempo, and close to but not totally in traditional Chuck Berry guitar boogie mode. In fact, listen to its opening guitar chug-a-long, then flip over to Side 1 and hear again Silver Machine’s opening guitar boogie chug-a-long. . . ah, you see: We’ve come full circle. And give credit to Nik Turner, doin’ what he can on Alto.

On the negative side of the product, I’ve gotta say the album art leaves something to be desired. There is an attempt on the front to invoke the spectre of the amazonian nudist dancer Stacia, but, ehhhhhh, not quite successful. The color scheme is OK, and I do like the colored circles on the back, though using the circular “clock” format for the song titles kind of throws one off. And that hexagon and flaming hand? Not really germane to HW if you ask me.

I’ve already indicated I like the song selection. Had I my druthers, I suppose I would have inserted Seven By Seven in place of the somewhat similar Lord of Light. And Paradox or D-Rider from Hall of the Mountain Grill instead of Web Weaver. Then again, why not go a little off the beaten track – the road less traveled, you know? There is some slight overlap with the original Roadhawks. The same Silver Machine and Urban Guerilla appear on both collections. But they were their two biggest hits, and both were non-LP tracks, so it’s hard to deny admittance. Space is Deep appears in studio form there and live form here. Acceptable. That’s it for overlaps.

All-in-all, a pleasing package, and what a thrill to actually find a new record release worthy of my desiring. Cheers for Record Store Day and wax fanatics like Dave Perry.

If it’s been half as amusing for you to read this as it was for me to write it, then it’s twice as good as if it never happened in the first place.